The invention relates to the use of an antiviral composition for treating measles in warm blooded animals and more particularly to the use of antiviral compositions containing alpha, alpha-dialkylethylamine derivatives of adamantane and at least one pharmaceutically acceptable carrier for the treatment of warm blooded animals infected with measles.
Measles is a highly contagious viral infection involving primarily the respiratory track and reticuleondothelial tissues. It is also called rubeola. A prodrome of three to five days duration begins about eight days after inhalation of the virus in droplets derived from a person in the prodromal or early eruptive phase of the infection. Coryza, cervical lymphadenitis, palpebral, conjunctivitis, protophobia, myalgia, malaise, and a harassing cough with steadily mounting fever precedes the skin eruption. The skin becomes covered with red papules that appear behind the ears and on the face before spreading rapidly down the trunk and onto the arms and legs. The papules are discrete but gradually become more confluent. The lesions flatten, turn brown, and slowly desquamate on about the sixth day, when the temperature has returned to normal. It may be complicated by bacteria, by pneumonia, by otitis media, and by a demyelinating encephalitis. Fatalities are due to the severity of measles itself, or to the bacterial or immunological complications.
No prior art is known which discloses the use of alpha, alpha-dialkyl adamantylethylamines for the treatment of measles.